Here is another feijoa recipe for those of you who love feijoas (or who just don’t know what to do with them!). A delicious desserty feijoa and banana smoothie!

Recipe: Feijoa and Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

• feijoas, peeled or flesh scooped out, whichever method you prefer
• bananas, frozen
• milk, any kind you like (coconut, full fat dairy milk, nut milk etc.

How to:

Add your desired amount of feijoas and bananas (e.g. a few feijoas and 1/2 frozen banana, to make ~ one serve), add roughly double the volume of milk and blend until it becomes a smoothie-like consistency! Enjoy chilled or over ice.

Here is something I made with the delicious feijoas from my backyard tree! If you have some feijoas that you don’t know what to do with, perhaps give this recipe a go!

Recipe: Feijoa and Apple Crumble

Makes: 2 or 3 small serves.

Ingredients:

• 3 small apples
• 5 fejioas
• 2 tbsp. sultanas
• 1/2 orange, juiced
• 1 heaped tbsp. coconut/rapadura sugar
• 1 tsp. mixed spice

Crumble ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. butter, melted
• 4 tbsp. rolled oats
• 1/2 tsp. mixed spice
• 2 tbsp. dried coconut, shredded
• 1 tbsp. coconut/rapadura sugar

To serve: yoghurt or cream, plus a bit of extra mixed spice.

How to:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees C. (fan-forced).
2. Rinse apples, then chop them up into small cubes (discard seeds and stem).
3. Peel the feijoas (discarding the peels), then cut up the flesh into similarly sized pieces.
4. Add the fruit to a pot with the orange juice, sugar and sultanas and cook for about 5 minutes on medium-low or until softened. Take off the heat and stir in the spice. Divide the fruit into a few ramekin containers.
5. Make the crumble: Melt the butter and mix in the rest of the crumble ingredients until all combined. Spoon the crumble mixture over the fruit in the ramekins. Bake the crumbles in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned.
6. Enjoy!

Oat-Free Crumble & Vegan Variation:

Ingredients:

Here is a delicious, warming soup recipe which I hope you will love as much as I did!

I’ve used sheep’s milk yoghurt in this recipe (as a garnish), but you’re welcome to use any other yoghurt you like instead. To make the yoghurt a bit more probiotic, you could mix in a bit of milk kefir into the yoghurt before adding it on top of the soup. I also added fresh mint and coriander on top as well as fresh chilli

Recipe: Veggie-Rich Lentil Soup with Sheep’s Milk Yoghurt & Herbs

Recipe info/allergen info: This recipe is gluten-free, and can be dairy-free if coconut oil is used instead of butter and if yoghurt is discarded. This recipe is vegetarian and vegan-friendly (if no butter or yoghurt are used).

Makes: 2-4 bowls of soup depending on size

Ingredients:

• 1 purple onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 large clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 tsp. coconut oil/butter
• spices: 1 tbsp. curry powder, 1 tsp. sweet paprika powder, 1 tsp. cumin powder & 1 tsp. salt
• 2 carrots, chopped and ends cut off
• 1/2 green capsicum, chopped into cubes (seeds discarded)
• 1 zucchini, chopped and end discarded
• ~ 1 handful long green beans, chopped and ends cut off
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 C. dried red lentils
• 1 can (~240g) french/green/puy lentils, drained and rinsed (you can use dried lentils, they will just need to be soaked for a few hours beforehand)
• ~4.5 C water
• Per each person: 1 or 2 leaves (or more) of swiss chard, torn
• To serve (per each person): a dollop of sheep’s milk yoghurt, some fresh mint, coriander, a bit of olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

How to:

1. First prepare all the veggies as indicated above. If using dried french lentils, they are best soaked a few hours before cooking.
2. Heat the oil of choice and cook the onion and garlic on low heat. Then add the spices, salt, the rest of the veggies (carrots, green capsicum, zucchini, green beans).
3. Stir in the tomato paste, the dried red lentils and the french lentils and water. Note: I measured the water by eye; it was about 4.5 C. water. I added enough water so that it was a thick soup rather than a broth-y type soup. So adjust the water how you like.
4. Cook the soup with a lid on for around 1-1.5 hours, or until everything is soft.
5. Towards the end of cooking, stir in enough swiss chard for each person you are cooking for. Then top each bowl of soup with the sheep’s milk yoghurt, fresh mint & coriander, a dash of extra virgin olive oil.

In this post I’m going to tell you how to make pizza dough made from spelt and fermented with kefir!

You will need some kefir grains to make this. Alternatively you can use bottled kefir such as Babushka. However, it may not have the same range of pro-biotic strains as kefir that is made from kefir grains does.  Kefir grains are little cauliflower-looking, probiotic cultures as you can see in the picture below. Here is my post all about kefir and here is 80+ ways to use it!

Recipe: Kefir Spelt Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

• 2 C. wholemeal spelt flour (or sprouted grain flour)
• 3/4 C. dairy milk kefir
• a pinch of salt
• plus: pizza toppings of your choice

Directions:

1. Add the flour, kefir and salt to a bowl. Knead it form a dough.
2. Once the dough springy and doughy, add it to a bowl and place a tea towel over the bowl.
3. Leave to ferment for a few hours (I did around ~5 hours) in a warm spot (I left it near a sunny window).
4. When you’re ready to cook, break the dough into 2 or 3 pieces. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C.
5. Roll each piece into pizza shapes on a lightly floured surface.
6. Put the pizza dough on a lightly floured tray, and roll out dough until it forms a pizza-shape. Because of the density of wholemeal flour I like to roll out the dough quite thinly to form the pizza base.
7. Add the toppings to your pizza base and then cook in an oven at about 200 degrees C (or in hot a wood-fired oven) until it is cooked to how you like it.

Here is a quick and easy ice cream recipe (see the raspberry version here)  which uses fruit as a base instead of cream, sugar and eggs. I hope you like it!

Recipe: Berry and Banana Soft Serve

Recipe info/allergen info: This is gluten-free and can be made dairy-free if using dairy-free milk.

Serves: Makes one serve.

Ingredients:

• 1/4-1/2 C. milk (any kind you like: full fat dairy, coconut milk etc)
• 1 tsp. chia seeds
• a handful or so of frozen mixed berries
• a few slices of fresh banana

How to:

1.  Blend milk and chia seeds.
2. Add the berries and banana slices and blend until it becomes a soft serve texture/consistency. If you find it isn’t the texture you desire you can add more berries or banana; alternatively you can place the it in the freezer for about 10 minutes to harden a bit.
3. Enjoy!

Recipe: Bacon, Bean and Spinach Soup

Recipe info/allergen info: This recipe is gluten-free. If you need to be really stringent about making this recipe gluten free: make sure the northern beans have been packed/processed away from gluten-containing grains. Also check that the bacon you use doesn’t contain any gluten-containing ingredients and check the same for the tomato paste, the molasses and mustard.

Ingredients:

• 1 C. dried great northern beans *These need to be soaked and cooked before hand- see below*
• 1 tbsp. butter or coconut oil
• 1 celery stalk, chopped (and leaves discarded)
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 slices of bacon (I like this brand), chopped into small pieces
• 2 potatoes, washed and cubed
• 1 carrot, washed, cubed and end chopped off
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• 2 tsp. molasses
• 4 C. filtered water
• 2 C. tomatoes, cut into small pieces/halves (for the cherry tomatoes) (I used a mix of fresh yellow & red cherry tomatoes and a regular whole fresh tomato)
• 1 tsp. mustard
• salt
• a handful of spinach (for each person), washed and dried.

How to:

*Preparing the great northern beans*:

Soak these beans in about 1.5 x the amount of water overnight (you can add a piece of kombu in the soaking water, if you like).

*Cooking the great northern beans*

Then, when ready to cook the beans: Discard the water. In a pot add 3 x the amount of water to the cup of beans and then boil the beans until very very soft (Don’t add any salt when it;’s cooking). Discard the cooking water.

1. Prepare the veggies: chop the celery & onion, potatoes, carrot and tomatoes. Crush the garlic. On a separate board, chop the bacon into small pieces.
2. In another large pot, melt the butter. Cook the onion, bacon and garlic. Now add the celery, potatoes, carrot and tomatoes. Add the bay leaf, tomato paste, molasses, mustard, water, cooked northern beans and salt.
3. Cook the soup until all the veggies and soft. (It took me about 45 minutes until everything became soft at about medium heat).
4. When ready to eat, add a handful of the spinach (washed and dried) per person in the pot. Leave it to wilt for a minute or two and then serve.
5. Enjoy!

As the weather has been getting colder, it’s definitely put me into a soup making mood/mode! Here is a delicious soup that features roasted chestnuts and broccoli which I hope you will love as much as I did.

Recipe: Autumnal Roasted Chestnut, Broccoli & Thyme Soup

Recipe info/allergen info: This recipe is gluten-free, and can be made dairy-free by using coconut oil instead of butter or ghee.  It can be suitable for those who follow a vegan or vegetarian diet if veggie broth is used instead of chicken broth.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. ghee, butter or coconut oil
• 1 celery stalk, chopped roughly and leaves discarded
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped roughly
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
• ~1.5-2 C. chesnuts, roasted and peeled (see directions below)
• 1 white potato (I used a Dutch Cream potato), chopped roughly
• 1 head of broccoli
• ~3.5-4 C. of chicken broth or veggie broth
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves

How to:

First roast the chestnuts: Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Then prepare each chestnut by using a sharp knife to cut an ‘X’ on the top side of each one. Place the chestnuts on a baking tray and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the shells start to peel away from the chestnuts (See the picture below of the roasted chestnuts). Then take them out and put each one in a tea towel (so you don’t burn your hands) and use the tea towel like a glove to completely peel the shells off the chestnuts. This can be done a few hours before hand, if you like.

1. When you’re to cook the soup: prepare the veggies- Wash and chop the celery stick into chunks. Peel the onion and chop it roughly and wash the potato and chop it roughly. Peel and chop the garlic. With the broccoli wash it and chop the stalk of the broccoli into small pieces  (the florets can be a bit bigger because they are more easily cooked).
2. Cook: Heat your oil of choice in a pot and cook the above veggies for a few minutes on medium heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Add the chestnuts: Now roughly chop the chestnuts. Add the chestnuts to the veggies and then add around 3.5 to 4 cups of veggie broth or chicken broth, depending on how thick or thin you want the soup.
4. Add the thyme leaves and put the lid on the pot. Leave to cook on medium-low heat or until everything is really soft. Then using a stick blender (or a normal blender in batches) blend the soup until it has pureed.
5. Enjoy!

Here is a delicious new recipe for you! In this pancake recipe I have used Oats (Avena sativa) instead of a refined flour wheat flour, which is commonly used in pancake recipes.  According to traditional herbal medicine, Oats are described as having the actions of a nervine tonic, tonic and thymoleptic which are properties that tone and nourish the nervous system.  Nutritionally, oats are rich in soluble fibre as well as nutrients such as calcium, potassium, phosphorous, iron, manganese, zinc; Vitamins A, B-complex, C, E and amino acids.

Above: Oats in the wild. 

In this oat pancake recipe I’ve used whole rolled oats but you might like to try using whole oat grains instead. If you do the later, please note the tips I’ve added in the recipe on how to do so.  Alternatively you can use quinoa flakes instead of rolled oats. This recipe also uses the fermentation of a sourdough starter to help break down anti-nutrients in the oats such as phytate as well as making the oats more nutritious and easy to digest. For more on fermentation have a read of the post by Helen Padarin.

Above: I served my pancakes with fresh sliced banana and a bit of honey. 

Recipe: Sourdough Oat Pancakes

Recipe info/allergen info: This recipe may not be suitable for those with Celiac Disease or for those who are on gluten-free diets. This is suitable for those who follow a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.

Ingredients:

• 1 C. whole rolled oats (or whole oat grain) (or quinoa flakes)
• Enough water/milk to just cover the oats (some will be absorbed but that’s okay)
• 1 tbsp. sourdough starter (if kept in the fridge, leave it on the counter for a while to come to room temperature)
• 2 eggs
• milk (any kind you like)
• coconut oil or butter
• Fruit to serve

How to:

This recipe needs to be started at least a few hours before you want to make it (i.e. the night before) in order for the oats to have a good enough time to ferment.

1. Fermentation: Place the whole rolled oats (or whole oat grain) in a bowl and cover with enough milk or water to absorb and cover the oats. Stir in the sourdough starter into the oat-water/milk mixture until it is well mixed. Put a tea towel over the bowl, leave it on the counter and leave this to ferment overnight. Note: the whole oats may not absorb as much water as rolled oats so perhaps
2. Adding the rest of the ingredients: The next day the water/milk  should hopefully be all absorbed. Add this mixture into a blender along with 2 eggs and blend.
3. Now a few tablespoons at a time, add enough milk (You want enough milk to turn the pancake mixture into the consistency of pouring cream) into the blender & then blend.
4. Now it’s time to cook: Heat some butter in pain. When it’s melted, spoon about a few tablespoons or so of the pancake mixture onto the pan and cook until the pancake bubbles a bit (see below), flip over and cook on the other side until golden. Repeat this with the rest of the batter.
5. 
6. Serve with any fruit you desire and enjoy!

[Photo credit: Image: kibsri / FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

[Photo credit 2: HealthFoodLover]

I love slow-cooking meats (see here) because it’s really only a few minutes of work and at the end of the day/cooking time you will have produced a flavourful delicious dish with little effort!

You can make this in the oven or a slow-cooker. Either way you cook it, the recipe is still really easy and very delicious.

Read my post on the benefits of consuming animal products here & read about the No-One-Diet Fits All Approach to Health.  

Above: Slow-cooked Pulled Hogget Shoulder on Sourdough Savoury Semolina Pancakes & Cauliflower Mash. 

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Recipe: Delicious Slow-Cooked Pulled Hogget Shoulder

Recipe info/allergen info: This recipe is suitable for those who follow the paleo-style diet and gluten-free diets, and dairy-free diets.

Ingredients:

• ~1.416 kg grass-fed hogget shoulder (you could also use another cut of beef or pork) (I got mine from Little Creek Cattle Company)
• spice mix: 1 tbsp. curry powder, 3 tbsp. sweet paprika powder, 1 tbsp. coriander powder, 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp. black strap molasses
• 1 tsp. chilli flakes
• 1 tsp. mustard
• water to cover 1/2 of the meat
• salt and pepper to taste
• Fresh coriander to serve
• water, extra

How to:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (fan-forced).
2. Mix the spice mix together. In a large enough zip-lock bag (big enough to fit the meat in) add the spices and then put the meat in the bag, seal it up and shake the bag around so the spices evenly cover the meat.
3. Chop the onion and put it in a crock pot (or slow cooker). Take the meat out of the zip lock bag and put it on top of the onions along with any remaining spice mix in the bag.
4. In a jug mix together the apple cider vinegar, black strap molasses, mustard and chilli flakes. Mix to dissolve the ingredients.  Add enough water into the jug that you think will be enough to 1/2- 3/4 cover the meat in the crock pot (i.e. the water level goes up to about 1/2 – 3/4 the height of the meat).
5. Put the lid on and leave to cook in the oven/slow cooker for 6-9 hours or until the meat is tender. Note: Every few hours you may need to add more water if the water level drops. It’s also a good idea to baste the meat with the liquid by spooning the liquid over the meat every few hours & you can also turn the meat around a few times too so it evenly cooks into the liquid.
6. When the meat is cooked through and very tender, using two forks (and careful not to burn yourself- the meat will be hot) pull apart the meat with the forks until it has all become shredded. Mix it back into the juices and then it’s ready to serve.
7. Serve with some fresh coriander and a delicious leafy green salad.

Enjoy!

Did you know there is no one diet* that can fit us all? It may come as a shock, but it’s true. Even though we can speculate what may be the best diet for all, there is no rule as to one true diet that is good for all of us. This is because we have Biochemical Individuality. We all have differences in our how well we respond to different food and the affect food has on our bodies due to age, activity, gender, life stage, metabolism, genetics and more.

It is safe to say that a diet rich in whole, unprocessed and real food that are as close to nature as possible, is generally is a good idea for all of us. And too much of anything likely isn’t going to be a good idea, especially of certain foods which include refined sugar, refined grains, trans-fatty acids, poor quality and rancid oils and processed meats.

How can we find out what is the best diet for us, as individuals? In order to do this, we need to experiment with our diets and see how we feel with and without certain foods and listen to our bodies! Finding out how we react to certain foods (or how we are without them) can be a real eye opener and can be a key to finding and maintaining good health. But what if you’re not sure what a healthy diet is? You can get help & guidance with finding out which diet suits you best, from a qualified Nutritionist or Naturopath. They can also analyse your current diet to see if there are any nutritional deficiencies that you may have/work with ones you may already have and they can work with any health conditions you have and improve them with lifestyle and dietary changes. Though ultimately you will be the one putting the food in your body and getting the outcome of your diet. So note how you feel and experiment with your diet.

Here are some articles to get you started:

The Importance of Whole Foods (or Why You Should Avoid Refined Foods)

Eat Real Food (It’s What Our Ancestors did)

The Benefits of Animal Products (there are many nutrients in animal products which are so very important to our health that are just not found in non-animal product containing foods i.e. fruits & veggies , so vegetarian or vegan diets need to be planned well to help avoid nutritional deficiencies & may need to be supplemented.)

Whether you a follow a diet that is based around plants, includes animal products or not, aim to make your diet as nutrient-rich (including as much variety as you can (variety in: colours (e.g. try to include many colourful fruits & veggies as you can), fermented foods, types of meats (include a range of fauna & use more than just muscle meats), soaked & cooked/soaked/sprouted legumes & beans, sprouted/soaked nuts & seeds, dairy & eggs (if consumed), sprouted & fermented grains/pseudograins (if tolerated))  and make your food as digestible as possible (fermenting, steaming, slow-cooking, sprouting etc.) because at the end of the day what we eat feeds us and helps us to thrive & survive.

Try this: have you ever noticed what you’re really eating? For a week or two keep a food diary that mentions not only what you’re eating but also how you’re feeling after eating certain foods. Do certain foods make you feel happier, fatigued, energetic, focused, bloated?

Remember: we are not only we eat, we are how we absorb, digest and use food.

A note on stress and our health:

As there is no one universal diet, there is also no “perfect” diet. We can waste a lot of energy trying to be “perfect” & stressing about what we eat, but really perfectionism with diet doesn’t exist. What we can do instead is just do the best we can, appreciate our bodies for how truly amazing they are and enjoy our food!

Note: *when I say diet, I mean merely just the food we eat.